Saturday, May 5, 2012

7 days before the big event and Cece is out with a double ear infection and a bad sinus infection. Of course, she blames that gust of wind that got her this past Monday (see below!) That evening, her ear was killing her like it did when she had an ear infection as a child. Damn wind!

She went to the doctor and had her look in her ears, nose and throat and her Dr's favorite phrase came off the docs lips...."Oh God!" Why does she always say that when she looks?

The Dr. got out her prescription pad. Cece stopped her saying, "Lets count how many days until my race. I want to be covered until the next day." They counted up 11 days and that is how many days worth of antibiotics she was prescribed.

Now Cece is trying to rest and stay on her training plan at the same time. Did she just say that? Good Luck! This is not quite so easy. Her mind wants to train...her body and lungs do not.

What to do?

Cece is bargaining with herself. She negotiated with herself...her mind is hemming and hawing. OK> agreed. She will rest most of the day in bed and try to sleep...sleep...sleep Then later in the afternoon she will get up and start moving around a bit....then early evening she will train indoors and do the Spinervals DVD called time trialapalooza....80 minutes of push, push push! Tomorrow if she is feeling better, she might ride the actual route...we will see how the battle of the mind and body plays out.

For now...nighty nite! Cece will be dreaming and visualizing the route.......

Monday, April 30, 2012

Cece has been cycling now for quite a few years. She has ridden in many different weather conditions and those of you that read this blog, know that she does not like the wind. Even though the cyclist's mantra is "The wind is your training partner" Cece avoids it like the plague if she can.

She had checked the weather Underground for her forecast in the Northeast Heights as she took her bike to work today to climb the difficult (for Cece) Elena Gallegos hill.It is a category 3 climb...so says Map My Ride. Once outside, she remarked out loud what a perfect day it was. No wind, moderate temps...a wonderful day to ride.

She began her ride and a few miles later her climb up to the top of Elena. We are fortunate in Albuquerque to have much land that is designated Open Space and the Elena Gallegos area is one of them. Click on
the clicky thingy and scroll down and you will see a brief slide show of the area. It is starkly beautiful. This is the high desert and once at the top, you can look west and see the city from way above it all!

Training is challenging and so was this climb.She was grateful she was not wearing a heart rate monitor because she would have been scared at her numbers...but she was pleased she made it up. Then the fun part. The reward for climbing up...is the down. Weeee! Weee! We Weee!

Cece wanted to get a few more miles under her belt and decided to go north on Tramway and then back south to where she had started from. When she made the turn to go south, she noticed a horrible head wind was developing. Where did this come from? She told herself this is Albuquerque and this is the box. She was going south into a headwind that had a sheer to it from the west. But really it was no problem.

But, she had spoken too soon. Shortly, a gust of wind caught her ,seemingly out of the blue, and took hold of her and her bike. Time stood still...it was like she was pedaling, but was going no where. All of a sudden, her bike began to wobble and she was beginning to be pushed into the highway. This was not good. Nothing like this had ever happened before. She thought back to the most horrible wind day she had ever experienced...that day on Frost road with the team....but this was worse. because she found she could not control her bike!

It took only a moment to decide to unclip and stop her bike. She stopped and held on tight. The gust passed. She took a few breaths...looked behind her at the quickly flowing traffic and said a silent prayer
of thanks.

After a moment, she got back on her bike again, wondering where the wind had gone too. There was a gentle breeze that was wonderfully pleasant, but no monster wind that made her immobile! Whew!

Favorite Web Sites

Inspirational Quotes

"Do ....or ....Do Not........ There is no Try"

Email Cece at: thetwowhos@gmail.com

"Above all else, do NOT quit! The universe always bows to persistence. The empowering approach is to see your physical challenges as assets, because overcoming obstacles forces you to develop discipline, determination and character. These traits will carry over to other areas of your life and make you a stronger person."

Tom Venuto, "Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle."

"Do what you should do, when you should do it, whether you feel like it or not." Thomas Huxley